1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a hygienic tampon for the menses.
2. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ARTS
Napkins have heretofore occupied the main current of hygienic articles for the menses, but the demand for tampons has recently been increasing. The following three types of tampons have heretofore been proposed and marketed.
(1) Finger type:
Typically, an absorbent material formed by compression-molding an absorbent such as absorbent cotton or the like is used. A tampon of this type is characterized that when it is actually used, an overlapping material is completely removed and an inner absorbent material is inserted into the body by fingers of the user per se. A largest advantage of the tampon of this type is that the size can be diminished. More specifically, the size of the tampon of this type is much smaller than that of an ordinary napkin and it can be carried in a handbag or the like. However, when it is actually used, the absorbent material is inevitably touched by the hand of the user and it must be inserted by fingers which inevitably touch unsanitary areas before insertion. Therefore, the tampon of this type is not satisfactory from the sanitary viewpoint.
(2) Stick type:
An absorbing material similar to the absorbing material of the tampon of the type (1) is used, but an appropriate hole is formed in the tail portion of the absorbing material and one end of a stick-like tool composed of a paper or the like is set at this hole and the absorbent material is inserted into the body with the aid of this stick-like tool while operating the stick-like tool with the hand of the user. This type is improved over the above-mentioned type (1) from the sanitary viewpoint. However, since the stick-like inserting tool is very thin, the operation is not performed stably and the user inevitably has an unstable feeling in connection with the insertion state.
(3) Applicator type:
An inserting tool composed of a paper material, a plastic material or the like, which includes outer and inner cylinders capable of sliding relatively to each other, is employed, and an absorbent material is contained in the outer cylinder and is pushed out from the opening on the top end of the outer cylinder and inserted into the body by sliding the inner cylinder. The sanitary problem involved in the type (1) is solved substantially completely in this type. However, the tampon of this type is defective in that (1) falling-out of the inner cylinder is readily caused by insufficient connection between the inner and outer cylinders and (2) since a special inserting tool as described above is employed, the outer size of the tampon as a whole is very large and at least 2 times the length of the absorbent material and it is very troublesome to carry and handle the tampon.
The present invention relates to a tampon of the above-mentioned type (3). More particularly, the present invention relates to an improvement in a hygienic tampon for menses having a mechanism for inserting an absorbent material of the tampon into the body by using an inserting tool. In short, the present invention provides an applicator type tampon in which the foregoing defects involved in the conventional hygienic tampons are sufficiently eliminated.
Many tampons of the applicator type have heretobefore been proposed and typical instances will now be described in detail by reference to the accompanying drawings.